Thanks to Chris Brogan for highlighting this post by Doug Meacham in which he reports on a “rather tense” Twitter exchange between Doug and Best Buy CMO Barry Judge.

It’s a interesting read. I’ll let you form your own opinion about who is right/wrong in the conversation.

More importantly, this is yet another example of how Twitter and the conversational web are increasing the level of transparency within corporate America — essentially opening them up to public dialog with consumers.

Although it’s important to engage customers in open online conversation, businesses must remember that the conversation occurs live on a stage. When you’re live on stage — you need to be at your best, and you need to make sure to maintain your cool, especially if the conversation ever gets intense.

Keeping your cool on Twitter and other social networking sites is super important for all businesses — big and small. Every time you engage a conversation online it is an opportunity for you to show the world (not just the person you’re talking to) how much you care about your customers, your business, and your brand.

Even if you’ve done nothing wrong and you find yourself dealing with an illegitimate complaint — the public is watching. It’s critical to remember that they will judge you not on the supposed mistake that you made — but how you handle it.

As small business owners start to use online marketing services like CloudProfile and start to become more active on Twitter, they must prepare for the eventual “blow up” with a customer. When it happens, I recommend that you invoke the three A’s: “acknowledge, apologize, act”.

It’s a good formula to diffuse the situation and show people just how much you really care.